Speaker Dogara: No ethnic group can be wiped out in Nigeria

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has said that no ethnic nationality can be wipe out despite the insecurity that has claimed several lives in rural villages in the country.

Dogara disclosed this on Friday during the 2019 Nzem Berom cultural festival with the theme “Celebrating the Berom Prowess in Science and Technology,” held at the Rwang Pam Township Stadium Jos, Plateau State.

“Violence has being disturbing this nation and I believe it is not above us; the Berom nation has had its own share of this unfortunate tragedy that has befallen our nation.

“I have said it severally that we can’t afford to lose the fight against the violence that has bedevilled us as a nation; it has never happened; it won’t happen and it will never happen. Any nation that has lost the fight against violence will not be stabilise.

“Looking at the North East, there are communities that you can’t find anything; police stations are burnt and homes have been destroyed; for how long is it going to take us before we can get to the position we want.

“If we have decided that we must win this fight against violence, it will be because some of us have decided that we will work across board in order to be peace builders for our people to live in peace.

“I have discovered all of us must not dwell in errors which have prolonged this violence. For instance, there is an error that an ethnic group can be wipe out; I know that it is absolutely impossible to talk about wiping out an ethnic group; it will never happen except the God that created them says he is going to wipe them out; nobody will be able to achieve that.”

The Gbong Gwom Jos, Da. Jacob Gyang Buba, said despite the permission by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police for the establishment of Mobile Police Barrack in Gashish village in Barkin-Ladi LGA of Plateau State, where over 230 people were killed in June last year, nothing has been done up to date.

He noted that the Berom have the largest numbers of IDPs in the state who don’t only need food to eat but need to be relocated to their ancestral homes.

Da. Buba said the state had not felt the impact of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and appealed to the government to direct NEMA to come to the aid of the people.

He said no amount of provocation from whosoever will make the Berom nation not to hold Nzem Berom in subsequent years, saying that no government has the right to redefine traditional boundaries in Plateau State.

Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Barr Solomon Dalung, admonished Plateau people to join hands to promote peaceful co-existence in the state.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday said that its members should not be held responsible if there is any disruption in the university system, as the Federal Government had not shown commitment to carrying out the 2019 Memorandum of Action.

Kaduna State members-elect of the House of Representatives on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday reaffirmed their support for Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC-Lagos) for the office of Speaker of the 9th Assembly.